Mosque firebomb suspect in Oregon called self ‘Christian warrior’

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An Oregon man charged with firebombing a mosque in apparent retaliation for an attempted terrorist attack in Portland had talked of being a ‘Christian warrior’ who was worried about ‘secret Muslims.’

The arrest of Cody Crawford, 24, concludes an eight-month investigation that began when a bottle full of gasoline was tossed through a window of the Salman Alfarisi Islamic Center in Corvallis on Nov. 28.

The device gutted most of the mosque’s office but no one was injured.

Crawford, who lives down the street from the mosque, had been taken by police to a mental hospital two weeks after the bombing and had made a series of statements about Muslims to officers then, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court in Eugene.

‘You look like Obama,’ he told an officer then. ‘You are a Muslim like him. Jihad goes both ways. Christians can jihad, too.’ Crawford said one of the police officers was ‘going to burn in hell like other Muslims,’ the affidavit reported.

Federal authorities believe the firebombing was a response to the arrest two days earlier of a 19-year-old Somali immigrant, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, who had attempted to blow up a van he believed was loaded with explosives at a crowded Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Portland.

FBI agents had been closely monitoring Mohamud’s actions and had loaded the van with harmless detonation cords and plastic caps. Crawford, who lived around the corner from the Corvallis mosque and could see its minarets from his front porch, had complained on Facebook that Mohamud had attended the nearby mosque. ‘I even remember when he walked by my house one time,’ he posted.

Crawford suffers from bipolar disorder and alcoholism issues, prosecutors and defense attorneys say, and was hospitalized in a mental health facility in December after being found waving a knife around in his front yard.

Dwight C. Holton, U.S. attorney for the district of Oregon, said federal authorities will pursue a criminal conviction. ‘Freedom of religion is essential to who we are as Americans. We will not tolerate attacks based on faith,’ he said in a statement. If convicted, Crawford faces a potential prison term of 10 to 30 years.

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--Kim Murphy in Seattle